Your Ever Faithful Admirer
by ForMyValentineTwilight
Summary: Bella has never had a Valentine, not until she begins receiving poems in her locker from a ‘faithful admirer’. Entry for the "2nd Annual For My Valentine" Contest.


**2nd Annual "For My Valentine"**

**A Twilight Love Story Contest**

**Title: Your Ever Faithful Admirer**

**Rating: K**

**Pairing: Bella and Edward**

**Summary: Bella has never had a Valentine, not until she begins receiving poems in her locker from a 'faithful admirer'**

**For more information please see contest details at ****http://www(dot)fanfiction(dot)net/~formyvalentinetwilight**

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"_Awake ye muses nine, sing a strain divine,_

_Unwind the solemn twine, and tie my Valentine!"_

Walking silent and alone through the hallways of Forks High I re-read the words I found in my locker two days ago. I don't know who gave me them, and I don't know why anyone would, but these words have come to mean so much to me in such a short amount of time.

They are the opening lines to my favourite Emily Dickinson poem, about love and its meaning in the world. No one, aside from my best friends Alice and Rose, knows of my love for this poem. And yet someone saw fit to send me these two lines three days before Valentines Day.

I shove the scrap of paper into my bag as I come to my locker, keeping my head down I quickly open it and pull out my English book for next period. As I pull the book out I see a similar scrap of paper flutter out to the floor.

Hiding it between the locker and myself I read the latest prose;

"_If she had been the Mistletoe_

_And I had been the Rose-_

_How gay upon your table_

_My velvet life to close-_

_Since I am of the Druid,_

_And she is of the dew-_

_I'll deck Tradition's buttonhole-_

_And send a Rose to you."_

My breath catches in my throat as I lift my head to see a single red rose standing in the corner of my locker. The note's signed this time; it says _"your ever faithful admirer"._

'Admirer'? I don't get Valentine's, I never have. It was always Alice and Rose who would be inundated with candy hearts and flowers and cards. Not me. I mean, not that I'm unattractive or anything, but I'm just so plain. Plain brown hair that curls slightly at the ends, and plain brown eyes that hold no real spark, not like Roses piercing blue eyes. I'm of average height, and I generally keep to myself.

How could I have an admirer?

I place the note with the other one in my bag and set off, rose in hand, to my English class I share with Alice.

I sit in my seat next to Alice, and explain my latest gift to her.

"This is brilliant Bella. Why aren't you happy?" I look down into my petite friends eyes; she's so much like a fairy. She cocks a small perfectly sculpted eyebrow at me, waiting for me to answer.

"Well I don't know, I mean what if it's just a joke? I've never had anything like this before; I don't know what to do. I don't even know who this person is" Alice just rolls her eyes at me. She opens her mouth to say something else when the teacher finally walked in and began the lesson, saving me from having to answer any more of Alice's questions.

We're reading Romeo and Juliet, which I've read so many times I have it pretty much memorised. So instead of listening to the class I let my mind wander to my admirer. I wonder who it could be. I know who I _want_ it to be. But that's just wishful thinking. He would never go for a girl like me.

I shouldn't get too caught up in the whole thing though, especially if it turns out to be a joke. Or worse if it turns out to be someone I don't even like, like that. I would feel so bad for them, especially after they obviously put so much effort into the whole thing.

Which brings up another question, how the hell did they manage to get a rose in my locker without the combination?

We meet up with Rose a couple of hours later in the cafeteria. Alice skips over to our usual table at the back of the hall as I make my way over to the salad bar. I grab an apple and a bottle of water, then turn to make my way over to my friends.

Half way over I feel my foot become tangled on something and I trip. I brace myself to hit the cold tiles, when I realise I'm not actually moving. I open my eyes to find myself staring into two pools of green. Oh crap.

He pulls me up so I'm standing in front of him. I can smell his distinctive cologne and watch silently as he runs his long fingers through his mess of bronze hair. Ducking my head down I notice his shirt has ridden up revealing a line of dark hair leading into the top of his jeans. I try not to stare...honestly.

"Erm…thanks Edward" I can feel the wave of crimson heat spreading across my cheeks.

"Its no problem Bella" I love the way he says my name.

I chance a glance at him through the curtain that's my hair; well he looks as uncomfortable as I feel. It's probably because I'm still standing in front of him.

"Yeah...eh…well I'll see you in biology" my arm comes up in some kind of pathetic little wave thing as I turn and quickly sit down next to Alice. I don't look up as I sit down.

After taking a huge gulp of water from my bottle, I look up to see Alice and Rose staring at me with mouths slightly agape.

"What?" I ask.

Rose attempts to speak but instead just looks like some weird fish, opening and closing her mouth repeatedly.

"Nothing at all Bella" Alice answers, looking just a little suspicious…of what I have no idea; she just has a mischievous glint in her eye that unnerves me.

I deicde to forget about it and turn the conversation to our plans for the weekend. We're taking a trip into Port Angeles to meet these two guys that my friends are interested in. Emmet and Jasper play baseball for Forks High, but they're not your typical high school jock, they're actually really sweet. Apparently they're bringing a friend for me to meet, someone I 'wouldn't expect', Rose's words.

How I _love _blind dates.

The bell rings, snapping me out of my musings.

Biology next, where I get to sit next to Edward for one whole hour. Normally I would be excited about getting to sit so close to him but not today. I have an idea that today is going to be exceptionally awkward.

I'm the first person in the lab, so I spend the few minutes before Edward gets here trying to regulate my heart rate. Whenever I'm around him my heart decides to try and beat its way out of my chest. I didn't notice he had entered the lab 'til his chair scraped loudly against the tile making me jump.

"Sorry Bella, I didn't mean to make you jump" he practically whispers.

We spend the whole lab sat in silence. I tip my hair down to act as a curtain to hide my face, keep peeking through it to see him. I watch as he takes notes, and fidgets with the ends of his shirt sleeves. He looks nervous for some reason, which is odd because I've never seen him look even remotely nervous before.

Five minutes left. I chance one more glance at him and nearly jump back when I see him looking straight at me. Before I can look away he shifts his eyes back to the desk top, and I'm even more shocked to see a slight pink tinge creep across his cheeks.

He's blushing, after being caught looking at me. But no, that's not right. He must just be embarrassed that I caught him day dreaming, he was probably just staring in my general direction. Nothing to do with me really.

We're playing tennis in gym. I couldn't concentrate though and ended up hitting poor Mike twice on the head before he told me to 'just stand there and don't worry about it'. So now here I am stood at the back of the tennis court, watching Mike beating the opposing team single handed, while my mind wanders to thoughts of Edward. How I wish that he would turn out to be my admirer, if it is a real Valentines that is.

I wonder what I'll receive tomorrow, if anything. I hope they reveal themselves, I'm not a fan of surprises and this is no different.

I change quickly and wander outside to wait by the side of my truck for Alice so I can take her home.

I can see Edward across the 'lot getting into his Volvo with his brother, Emmet, and Jasper. I didn't realise they were friends, I think about how funny it would be if he's the friend they bring on Saturday. I'm still staring in the same place when Alice decides it would be a great idea to pounce on me. Stupid little pixie.

"So Bella," Alice begins halfway to her house "I saw you talking to Edward today after he caught you, what did he say?"

"Not a lot, just that it was no problem, after I said thank you" my eyes are trained to the road, so I don't know how she reacts to my words.

"Oh. Is that all?" what?

"Was he supposed to say something else?" sometimes she really does my head in with the cryptic little things she says.

"No. I was just wondering" by now we're pulled up outside her house, "anyway I'll see you tomorrow Bella" she ends with a wink before she hops gracefully out of the cab of my truck and dances her way through her front door.

I'm still thinking about what Alice meant by that as I park on my drive behind my dads police cruiser. Its not often that he's home before me, but today was his day off. I push all thought of Alice, admirers and Valentines out of my head as I walk though the front door.

"Hey dad!" I call into the living room where I can hear Charlie watching the game.

"Hey Bells, how was your day?" he tilts his head over the side of the couch so I can see him. My dad looks so much like me with his dark hair and brown eyes, but his are such a lovely colour, like chocolate.

"It was fine, the usual you know" I never really know how to talk to Charlie. We're both such private people and find it difficult talking about feelings…or anything to be honest.

"Oh good" he smiles at me then returns his attention to the game on the t.v.

I decide to head upstairs and get started on my homework.

I spend an hour finishing up an English essay and starting on some maths problems, before I give up and go downstairs to make us some dinner.

Lasagne tonight I think. It takes me another forty five minutes to prepare dinner and now that it's in the oven I clean the kitchen, just to occupy my mind.

We eat our dinner in silence, although I ask him how works going, and if he's doing anything this weekend. Turns out my dad has a date, who would've thought? After dinner Charlie offers to do the dishes, leaving me to sit in my room listening to music and checking my email. I even clean my room. However now I have nothing to occupy my mind and it slips back to my admirer.

They've obviously got help, 'cause only Alice and Rose know my combination and they seemed as surprised as I did when I got the first note, so it can't be them. Although they're both pretty good actresses. Maybe they're friendly with the janitors…or something.

It's ten o' clock when I decide to just go to sleep, maybe when I wake up things will be clearer.

I don't think today is going to be any better. So far I've tripped four times. Once when I ran into the bathroom for my shower, and because I was running late I wasn't looking where I was going and slipped on my shoes that I didn't put away last night. The other three were equally embarrassing, so now I have about two minutes to get to class. My hair's wet, I'm pretty sure my t shirt is inside out and to top it all off I didn't have enough time to go to my locker to get my Spanish book.

My first two periods pass in a blur. I feel completely out of it for the majority of my lessons up until lunch.

I slam myself down onto the bench next to Rose and tune into their conversation,

"Well I've only got the one this year. I think Emmet has been telling everyone to back off so the only one I got was from him" Rose grins broadly as she's telling her story, I can't help wondering what she's got though.

"Yeah, me too. Well not from Emmet but from Jazz" Alice looks the same as Rose, eyes glazed over slightly with moony grins on their faces.

"What _are _you too on about?"

"Valentines silly. Don't tell me you forgot?-You did didn't you" I drop my face into my hands. Urgh. Valentines Day, the worst day in the world as far as I'm concerned.

"Hasn't your admirer given you anything?" my admirer…? Oh no!

As soon as it clicks I take off running to my locker. I'm not sure why I'm suddenly so anxious, especially when I didn't even remember it earlier, but I really hope they reveal themselves. I need to know whether this is a joke or not.

I somehow manage to get to my locker without hitting anyone else and without tripping again.

I brace my right hand against it and try to catch my breath, having to stand at the back in the gym has really made me unfit.

Once I get my breath back I open my locker and see a cream envelope, closed with a red wax seal.

With shaky fingers I break the seal and pull out the piece of paper inside;

"_My Dear Isabella, _

'_She walks in beauty, like the night__  
__Of cloudless climes and starry skies;__  
__And all that's best of dark and bright__  
__Meet in her aspect and her eyes:__  
__Thus mellowed to that tender light__  
__Which heaven to gaudy day denies._

_One shade the more, one ray the less,__  
__Had half impaired the nameless grace__  
__Which waves in every raven tress,__  
__Or softly lightens o'er her face;__  
__Where thoughts serenely sweet express__  
__How pure, how dear their dwelling place._

_And on that cheek, and o'er that brow,__  
__So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,__  
__The smiles that win, the tints that glow,__  
__But tell of days in goodness spent,__  
__A mind at peace with all below,__  
__A heart whose love is innocent!'_

_If you have enjoyed my stolen words, allow me to reveal myself. I will be waiting by the fountain behind this building at a quarter to one. I will wait till the end of lunch. _

_I truly hope you will meet me,_

_Yours Eternally_

_Your ever faithful admirer"_

I look at my watch. 12.43 I have two minutes to meet him. Leaving my locker open I take off down the hallway. It would normally take me about five minutes to get there but I run, I don't want to make him wait, whoever he is.

I plough through students leaving the cafeteria early, and nearly fall over a group of people sitting by the lockers next to the door to outside.

I round the corner leading to the fountain and stop dead.

I can feel my mouth dropping open at what I see before me.

There, sitting on the edge of the fountain I the last person I would've expected.

I feel myself moving closer to him, but I have no control over my feet, I'm still stuck over the idea of who it is.

I stop walking a meter away from him and just watch. He checks his watch twice in the space of about thirty seconds. And his hands run through his hair more times then I can count.

My hand reaches up and I grab his shoulder.

"Bella" he breathes out when he sees me.

I look into the eyes of my admirer, with a massive grin on my face.

I throw my arms around his neck, his hands rest on my lower back as I whisper in his ear,

"I wished it would be you"

I pull back and look into the emerald eyes of my admirer.

My Edward.


End file.
